The Crown

P: King Edward VIII conferred upon his vacation host, King George II of Greece, last week the Order of Knight Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George.

P: King Edward's invitation to Mustafa Kamal Ataturk to visit His Majesty in Buckingham Palace was last week the subject of a diplomatic note in which the Turkish Dictator intimated that he might not find it "practicable" to come but would send Turkish Premier Ismet Inoenue. After correspondents had talked with agitated officials of the British Foreign Office. United Press reported: "Edward's invitation was extended without the Government's knowledge. . . . Perplexed British diplomats point out that while they are pleased with improvement in recent Anglo-Turkish relations they can see no tangible topics for negotiation with Turkey presently. Likewise they regard the idea of preparing a new Mediterranean Pact now as most inopportune. . . . A simple invitation by King Edward has upset the British Foreign Office."

P: Scottish clansmen accustomed to gather each year and greet the Monarch with a loyal demonstration after his arrival at Balmoral (TIME, Sept. 28) were informed last week that King Edward had discontinued this practice and also would not drive out behind the Royal greys. The 40 stable grooms and coachmen who accompanied the Monarch in previous years to Balmoral were left in London last week and the custom of inviting a Cabinet minister to reside in attendance upon the King in Scotland was also discontinued. Constitutionally the King can act only upon the advice and with the countersignature of a member of the Cabinet.

P: The King when Prince of Wales laid the cornerstone of the Royal Infirmary at Aberdeen. Last week His Majesty caused the Court Circular to appear one morning in such a manner that the first paragraph announced that Mrs. Simpson had arrived at Balmoral Castle while the second para graph said that the Duke & Duchess of York had opened the Royal Infirmary at Aberdeen. While Their Royal Highnesses were doing so. His Majesty, wearing a kilt and with a Scottish tarn o' shanter set jauntily over one ear, arrived at the Aberdeen railway station and greeted Mrs. Simpson as she alighted to be his guest.

P: Used as a guest room at Balmoral Castle by order of King Edward last week was the large bedroom formerly occupied by King George and Queen Mary. His Majesty chose for himself a small bed room near the pantry, occupied until last week by a servant. The servant was moved out and Scottish plumbers did a record rush job of installing for the King a bathroom with an electric pushbutton handy by the tub to call his valet.

P: In addition to the Royal Dukes and Duchesses, the Duke & Duchess of Marlborough, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, the Duke & Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry and the Earl and Countess of Rosebery were invited to be with the King and Mrs. Simpson at Balmoral Castle. Its nine Scottish pipers who, headed by Major Henry Forsyth, are accustomed to march around the Monarch's dinner table nightly and render old Highland airs at 9:30, were ordered by Edward VIII last week to pipe for the benefit of his assembled guests St. Louis Blues whose lyric goes: "St. Louis woman with her diamond rings pulls that man around by her apron strings!"

Afterward Castle guests were shown movies taken on the recent royal yachting cruise. In these the King and Mrs. Simpson, always side by side, figured with such local rulers as the Turkish Dictator and Mrs. Simpson was seen riding through the streets of .Athens seated at the King's right hand in his official car amid the plaudits of the Greeks. All this was news to most of the assembled Dukes and Duchesses in Balmoral last week, for such scenes have been rigidly kept from the British newspaper-reading and newsreel-viewing public by a form of British self-censorship which in the circumstances is lese majeste.

P: Mrs. Simpson is no great churchgoer and on Sunday the Duchess of York and Kent remained with her at Balmoral Castle while to church went the King, the Duke of York and Kent, and His Majesty's little nieces Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose.

P: In the U. S., meanwhile, Liberty magazine ran off 2,500,000 copies of an issue in which a spade was called a spade with regard to the King and Mrs. Simpson "the Most Envied Woman in the British Empire." Simultaneously suburbanites taking their evening trains home from Manhattan looked up to see among placard advertisements of chewing gum and corn cures a blurb reading "THE YANKEE AT KING EDWARD'S COURT" This sold at 15-c- each some 100,000 copies of the new New York Woman in which a spade was called a shovel thus: "While the outcome, no doubt, will be a victory for the Throne, the King, quite evidently, is the most helpless of creatures, a man over 40 who has fallen desperately in love." The New York World-Telegram, leading organ of the nation-wide Scripps-Howard chain, followed this with front-page pictures six inches high of Queen Mary and Mrs. Simpson side by side--the Scripps-Howard story being that Her Majesty "disapproves of the King's open friendship for American-born" Mrs. Simpson and has taken up an attitude of "protest"*

In Manhattan the divorced first wife of divorced Mrs. Simpson's present husband was discovered living in reduced circumstances with his attractive daughter Audrey at No. 1331 Madison Ave. Said the first Mrs. Simpson: "I wish to emphasize that I do not wish anything I may say to imply criticism of the alleged friendship of the present Mrs. Simpson with His Majesty. I admire her a great deal and am fond of her as I have known her. If what the newspapers say of my former husband's present financial standing is true. Audrey and I wish he could find it possible to provide adequately for her education and maintenance. I doubt very much the reports that Mr. Simpson and his wife are contemplating a divorce. I see no reason why either of them should wish it. The present Mrs. Simpson has enough of 'what it takes' to steal a man. Mr. Simpson walked out on me while I was ill in a hospital in Paris."

P: The King last week ordered decommissioned the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, commanded the immediate construction of a yacht even finer than the $1,350,000 Nahlin which he chartered from Lady Yule for his vacation. It was not announced at Balmoral for whom this will be named but the craft is to be "the world's finest yacht" with swimming pool, squash court, gymnasium and equipment permitting the King to arrive or depart from his floating palace by seaplane.

P: In Broadmoor Institution for the Criminally Insane "detained during the King's pleasure" have been two sisters, convicted during the reign of King George of killing an imbecile brother whom they had cared for for 20 years. This so-called "mercy killing" has been under review by the Home Secretary, Sir John Simon. Last week with his advice and countersignature, their detention during the pleasure of King Edward was terminated and they were let out of Broadmoor.

* Her Majesty has already moved out of Buckingham Palace and upon her return to London will reside at Marlborough House. This served a similar purpose as the residence of the Dowager Queen after the death of King Edward VII. In 1928 Queen Mary had Marlborough House redecorated with the expectation that the Prince of Wales would marry and settle down therein, but H. R. H. preferred to remain in bachelor quarters in York House. Edward VIII differs from his father in that the hoisting of his personal standard over a place of residence is no proof that he is there, as it always was in the case of George V. A large crowd waiting outside Buckingham Palace recently for Edward's return from vacation raised cheers as the royal standard was run up, for they expected to see His Majesty.

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